Quick start lifts United to 42-14 road win

Entering the week, the message around the United Longhorns was to play the full 48 minutes.

After a loss against Edinburg Vela to begin the year — United mounted a comeback as it outscored the Sabercats 26-7 in the second half before ultimately succumbing to a 51-46 defeat — the Longhorns (1-1) responded with a 42-14 victory over the San Antonio Alamo Heights Mules (0-2) on Friday night for their first win of the season.

“I thought we came out and played real well on both sides of the ball. Executed real well on both sides of the ball. The kids played really hard,” United head coach David Sanchez said.

United came out with a vengeance. One week after being outscored by 24 points in the first half, this week’s effort showed a reversal between how it and its opponent fared on the scoreboard.

The Longhorns got off to a 7-0 lead on senior quarterback Wayo Huerta’s 25-yard touchdown pass to senior receiver Ricky Chapa with 1:24 left in the first quarter. They then proceed to score 21 of the next 28 points as they took a 28-7 lead into the locker room.

“We came out and kind of took control of the game pretty quick,” Sanchez said. “We made a couple of first downs the first series and had to punt, but after that I thought we executed really well. Played really good the first half and came out and got a stop and scored again and kind of put the game out of reach and really controlled the ball after that and scored a few times. I was really pleased with our kids. Any time you score 42 points, things are going well.”

Huerta and the United offense clicked once again. The third-year quarterback completed 24 of 30 passes for 295 yards and four touchdowns, which puts him at 711 yards and 10 touchdowns compared to just one interception through two games.

United junior Tanner Sanchez has a team-high 253 receiving yards through the first two games this season.

United junior Tanner Sanchez has a team-high 253 receiving yards through the first two games this season.

Photo: Danny Zaragoza /Laredo Morning Times

Photo: Danny Zaragoza /Laredo Morning Times

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United junior Tanner Sanchez has a team-high 253 receiving yards through the first two games this season.

United junior Tanner Sanchez has a team-high 253 receiving yards through the first two games this season.

Photo: Danny Zaragoza /Laredo Morning Times

Quick start lifts United to 42-14 road win

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Chapa had 86 yards and two scores on seven catches. Junior receiver Tanner Sanchez finished with 52 yards and two touchdowns on six catches, following a Week 1 display where he put up career highs in yards (200) and touchdowns (4). Junior running back Carlos Jaime had a team-best 110 receiving yards and also rushed for 58 yards and a touchdown.

And the defense held Alamo Heights to 242 yards includng 33 rushing yards with 1.94 yards per carry.

“I thought both Ricky and Tanner had good games,” Sanchez said. “Wayo threw the ball well and made some real good decisions. Carlos Jaime ran the ball well. Overall, it was a good team effort. Defense played really well.”

Sanchez said he saw improvements in the ground game. United ran for 92 yards on 35 carries last week, but this time around it finished with 128 yards on 35 touches.

Next to Jaime’s 58 yards, Huerta had 40 rushing yards and senior running back Samuel Reyes tallied 18 yards on five carries.

“I thought we made some progress,” Sanchez said. “They’re still learning and getting a feel for it and stuff. We ran the ball better. We were able to do some things inside. We executed some screens real nice. Had some big plays and some big yardage on some screens that we threw. Overall, I thought we executed real well.”

United now goes back to the drawing board as it readies for a 7:30 p.m. game next Friday at the San Marcos Rattlers.

“We talk to them about having the mentality of it’s one game at a time and the next one is the most important one,” Sanchez said. “You try to go into that week with that type of concept and that type of belief of you’ve got to be ready to play the next week. It doesn’t matter what you did the week before, who you beat or how you beat them. You’ve got to prepare yourself for the next one.”